NI Conservatives’ justice spokesman, Julian Robertson, has welcomed the government’s consultation into reoffending, ‘Transforming Rehabilitation’, which Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling launched on Wednesday.
“The government is proposing to revolutionise the way in which offenders are managed in England and Wales”, Julian noted. “Chris Grayling’s paper suggests opening up probation services to competition and encouraging innovative methods to rehabilitate prisoners, by paying by results. The key functions of the probation service will remain in the public sector, but the plans will encourage mentoring offenders and tackling some of the complicated issues in their lives which cause them to reoffend.”
“We have slightly lower reoffending rates in Northern Ireland, but our justice system struggles with many of the same problems and the probation service is already looking at some of the newer techniques, such as mentoring, to rehabilitate prisoners. We should take this opportunity to scrutinise the proposals made by the government for England and Wales carefully, examine the results of the consultation and determine which methods could be applied to the probation system in Northern Ireland.”
“The scenes that we’ve seen on our streets in recent weeks remind us just how important it is to remain engaged with everyone in our society and to tackle the deep-seated problems which cause crime and violence. Chris Grayling’s ideas on re-offending are compassionate and innovative. We should give them serious consideration as we look to improve rehabilitation in Northern Ireland.”